Senior Nate Wolters' work ethic off the court is heard by many, seen by few

Feb. 17, 2013

SDSU Senior Nate Wolters jogs onto the court during introductions Saturday against Western Illinois in Brookings. Wolters and the Jacks have won 30 games in a row at home. / Robby Gallagher / For the Argus Leader

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SDSU senior point guard warms up before facing IUPUI on Thursday in Brookings. Wolters is SDSU's career scoring and assists leader, helping lead the Jacks to an NCAA tournament berth an a 30-game home winning streak. / Melissa Sue Gerrits / Argus Leader

The many skills of Nate Wolters

SDSU senior point guard Nate Wolters has set the school’s career scoring record, single-game scoring record, career assists record, single-game 3-point record and free throws made record in his senior season. He’s on pace to become the first player to average at least 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in consecutive seasons since assists totals were officially tracked by the NCAA in 1983. A look at his career numbers:

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BROOKINGS — Onthis Tuesday night, the only buzz inside Frost Arena comes from the overhead lights. No coaches or fans, no obligations or acclaim. A bearded jogger circles the blue track on the mezzanine and little else.

This is when and where Nate Wolters became the best basketball player in South Dakota State history – not this specific moment, but after practice and the space between the checkered baselines of the Jackrabbits’ 6,000-seat home venue.

The senior point guard has an evening routine: One hour of brisk shooting followed by dribbling drills in the team lounge. A TV is in there, and Wolters likes to watch basketball on television – preferably the NBA – while honing his handle. This is his way of kicking back.

Wolters is a gym rat of the highest degree in that he doesn’t entirely recognize the extent of his dedication – or perhaps he does and finds it easier to downplay. That work ethic could have been the crux of his legacy at SDSU if not for so many more public accomplishments: School record-holder in career points and assists; a threat to become second player in NCAA Division I history with 2,000 points, 600 assists and 600 rebounds; an All-American candidate.

And there’s no telling what the next month will bring given his performances of the past – career-high scoring outputs in consecutive games accompanied by another wave of national publicity.

The 6-foot-4 Wolters has been the on-court engineer of a renaissance at SDSU, quarterbacking the Jacks to 80 wins plus an NCAA Division I tournament berth – a first for the school and the state – over the last four seasons.

Before Wolters reached campus, the Jacks endured four seasons with a combined 36 wins.

It’s possible that jobs would have been lost, families uprooted, if not for the efforts of Wolters and Co. Instead, SDSU – the school and the basketball program – has received unprecedented exposure.

Wolters has thrived and fit in, becoming a hoops hero in Brookings for his quiet competitiveness, his humble flair.

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Of all the empty gyms in America, he seems best suited to be shooting in this one.

“This is where you get better, I think,” he explained. “It gives you confidence going into games. When I don’t do it, I feel weird.”

A basketball obsession

Team manager Austin Miller joked (maybe he was serious) that Wolters has a disorder in his devotion to basketball. If that’s the case, blame the blood – his dad, Roger, and his older sister, Kristen, played Division III ball.

The latter exposed him to the youth scene; the former coached his first traveling team.

Wolters was maybe 5 when he started playing organized hoops and played up a grade almost from the beginning. He had season tickets to St. Cloud State games and took a girl named Spaulding to prom.

Actually, the last part isn’t true – that was a running joke at St. Cloud Tech, according Matt Farb, his best friend since fifth grade.

To hear Wolters tell it, none of this was remarkable.

He claims he didn’t get serious about the game until college and credits former teammate Clint Sargent – the SDSU leader in career 3-pointers – with demonstrating the importance of hoisting extra shots in an empty gym. It’s possible to knock down 300-400 shots in an hour if you move at the proper pace.

Miller was helpful in making that a habit. An aspiring coach in his sixth year with the Jacks, he frequently offered to rebound for players after practice and rarely found any takers.

Nobody has to talk Wolters into going to the gym. To the contrary, the staff – wary of burnout – tried to implement a mandatory vacation at the end of the Division I NCAA Tournament last season, the first in school history.

The hiatus lasted maybe three days.

According to his dad, success doesn’t so much satisfy Wolters as motivate him to work even harder.

“It’s almost an addiction,” said coach Scott Nagy, the SDSU leader in career wins (336) and tenure (18 seasons). “If he’s not doing it, he doesn’t feel right. He might get the shakes if he didn’t shoot one night.”

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Creating a legacy

Wolters makes the grind look effortless, his laid-back personality crossing over into his playing style. It’s one of the reasons he didn’t garner more scholarship offers coming out of high school, according to Josh Hanson, his AAU coach with the Minnesota Comets. Some recruiters mistook the ease for disinterest. Others were fooled into thinking he lacked quickness.

The University of Washington knows otherwise. Wolters posted 34 points, seven assists and four rebounds without a turnover in a lopsided win over the Huskies in the middle of last season, outplaying several NBA-bound guards. Afterward, Washington coach Lorenzo Romar compared Wolters to Steve Nash and Jason Kidd for the way he dominated the ball.

That ambush of the eventual Pac-12 regular-season champs was the stand-out performance of the season for Wolters on the way to finishing as the only D-I player to average at least 20.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists. Wolters led the Jacks to their first Big Dance in their fourth year of eligibility.

He’s on pace to hit those marks again and has posted a couple more big-time performances against name-brand programs – putting up 30 at Alabama and 28 with seven assists and five boards in a win at nationally ranked New Mexico.

With Wolters leading the way, SDSU (21-7) has reached the 20-win mark for the second straight season – that hadn’t happened since 2003 – and is one league victory from at least a share of first regular-season conference title since moving to Division I.

Home dominance has been a big part of that success. The Jacks have won 30 in a row at Frost Arena, a Summit League record and the second-longest active streak in the country. Three of the last five home dates were sell outs, indicative of the players’ popularity. Wolters is hardly alone in that regard – he’s merely the most accomplished of the reserved and respected bunch.

Just last week, he exploded for 53 points – a school record by nine, a Summit League best in a non-overtime game and the most in Division I this season – and 36 in two conference road games in a span of three days. He shot 60 percent in that set.

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If anyone else had done that? Wolters would have been jealous – he admitted to feeling that way when hearing of exceptional showings by other players. So, yes, he’s ultra competitive, just not in a jersey-popping, trash-talking way — the proof is on film.

If you look closely at the 53-point affair, Wolters briefly broke his customary post-shot trot to deliver a vicious high-five after burying one of nine 3-pointers.

“He was in a completely different zone,” said Kristen Wolters, a Twin Cities resident who watches most of his younger brother’s games online, “and everyone knew it.”

Yes, everyone. And in short order. Wolters became a trending topic on Twitter. He got first-segment treatment on SportsCenter. Interview requests from the national media came rolling in.

This is not what brought him to Brookings – population 22,056 – in that so much attention had never been focused there before. Said longtime former sports information director Ron Lenz: People used to go to Jacks games because they won; now some show up just to watch Wolters. And when they see him around town, they might work up the nerve to ask for an autograph or a picture – sometimes, but not all the time; that’s not how things are done in South Dakota.

It’s not like Wolters is too famous to attend class. Besides, he’s doing all of his coursework online this semester.

“Honestly,” Farb said, “this whole situation just kind of escalated a lot quicker than I would have ever imagined.”

Persistence pays off

Every NBA team has scouted Wolters at least once, according to SDSU assistant Austin Hansen, and prospective agents have followed the trail. There’s no telling what – if anything – that will mean come draft day June 27. But merely being in the mix has been a trip for Wolters, an NBA junkie who saw himself as a Division II player until late in his prep career.

SDSU was the first – and for a long time, the only – D-I program to offer. It’s just that there was uncertainty surrounding the staff: Would it survive a string of four consecutive 20-loss seasons? It would with Wolters on board.

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The Jacks saw him as a point rather than an off-guard. He possessed good size, having finally grown into long arms and big feet, and could handle and pass and make decisions. The scoring ability was a bit of a surprise – Wolters has posted more points in college than he did in high school.

The coaches were willing to give him the keys to the club, practically staking their professional futures on him. Hansen was especially persistent, pursuing Wolters unbeknownst to Nagy after talks broke down between family and staff.

It was a game-changing act of persistence, one that wouldn’t have mattered if Wolters had accepted a late offer from North Dakota State or Colorado State or if another recruit had accepted the SDSU tender first.

That relationship has grown roots during weekly one-on-one meetings. A father of five, Nagy conducts them with all of his players. The only rule: Try not to talk about basketball.

Wolters appreciates the idea. After all, he needs fresh material in order to steer congratulatory calls away from the court, a regular post-game tactic, according to Kristen, the younger of his two sisters. There is more to him than hoops.

He’s an uncle twice over, a semi-regular volunteer at a non-profit organization for kids in the Twin Cities, an avid fan of Minnesota pro sports, a history major – he’s partial to American – and dabbles in video games. His favorite is a college football game that’s four years outdated.

“When you see him during his downtime, he’s kind of a slob,” Miller said with a laugh. “It’s peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and watching (ESPN). Then he gets up and you think he might go do something except he’s just getting a bowl of cereal and turning the volume up. That’s our day.”

But there’s always time to fill up the baskets inside Frost Arena. Wolters didn’t raise his 3-point percentage from 24 last season to 40 this season by curling up on the couch with Cap’n Crunch.

Shot after shot

On this night, he’s got two teammates in tow – one reserve, one redshirt – and they share reps equally, changing their relation to the rim with each turn, firing off roughly eight shots each before rotating. They mix in runners and floaters with so many jumpers, speaking less and moving more as the time ticks. The pace is purposeful, the program precise and efficient, seemingly choreographed down to the back-the-back dribble.

“He’s got the ball on a string,” Heemstra said. “It’s unbelievable.”

It’s far-fetched, at the very least, that a reserved kid from central Minnesota could change the trajectory of a proud program, bring invaluable recognition to the largest university in South Dakota and so much joy to its basketball-loving boosters.

For four years, Wolters has lit up Frost Arena whether every seat was full or no one was watching. And the time is almost up.

“I don’t know I’d be the same player I am now,” he said. “I’m pretty glad I made this decision.”